Guilty of 1st-degree murder

Jury deliberates for little more than an hour in Coatesville slaying case

WEST CHESTER » An alleged drug dealer has been found guilty of the shooting death of a homeless Pottstown man last summer, a slaying that was captured on surveillance video in Coatesville.

A Common Pleas Court jury Thursday deliberated slightly more than an hour before returning with a guilty verdict for Lenn T. Tucker, who was accused of firing 11 shots at the victim, 24-yearold Alex J. Hartzell, hitting him in the chest and head.

The panel of eight men and four women announced their verdict in Judge Patrick Carmody’s courtroom around 7 p.m., 70 minutes after beginning their deliberations. They found Tucker, 26, of Coatesville, guilty of first-degree murder, possession of an instrument of crime, and firearms violations.

Tucker, who did not testify, will be sentenced at a later date. The first-degree murder conviction carries with it a mandatory term of life behind bars without the possibility of parole.

The prosecution, led by Chief Deputy District Attorney Ronald Yen and Assistant District Attorney Taner Jacobs, presented a multitude of witnesses and evidence that tied Tucker to Hartzell’s shooting. But key among the evidence was a videotape that showed Hartzell being gunned down near a backyard lot along

Diamond Alley in the city’s East End.

Although the video showed the victim and the shooter, the identity of the shooter was not immediately clear. Police were able, however, to identify Tucker as a suspect and question him about the matter.

When he as interviewed, Tucker told police that he was with Hartzell the day of the shooting and had followed him as he walked down Diamond Alley. However, he said that there had been four other men in the alley that night, and he pointed the finger of blame at them in the fatal shooting. The video, however, showed only two people,

and led Coatesville Detective Kevin Campbell and Chester County Detective James Ciliberto to charge Tucker.

Tucker’s attorney, Edward C. Meehan Jr. of Philadelphia, countered that the investigators had believed a story told them by an unreliable witness, Samuel Grove, who had allegedly been at the scene as well. He said the story concocted by Grove had led them to lie to Tucker about evidence they had against him, forcing a false narrative that implicated him in the shooting.

According to the prosecution’s case, Hartzell – a man with mental heath and drug addiction problems who lived in various shelters in the city and formerly at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Caln – had purchased crack cocaine from

Tucker in the early morning hours of Aug. 26 along with Grove.

Authorities said Hartzell had been upset with the quality of the cocaine, and confronted Tucker about it around 6 a.m. that morning. He threatened Tucker with a Swiss Army knife, and challenged him to a fight. Tucker went to his car, a Jeep allegedly driven by his wife, and retrieved a 9 mm handgun from it. Then, he followed Hartzell down the alley, and when the man turned to face him, fired six shots into his body, authorities said.

When Hartzell fell to them ground, Tucker stood over top of him and fired five more shots, authorities alleged.

Grove, a city resident with a long criminal history, initially told police that he was in the area of North Seventh

Avenue and Diamond Street at the time of the shooting, but could not identify the shooter. Later, as he was facing unrelated criminal charges, he revised his story and identified Tucker as the alleged shooter, according to a criminal complaint. He said he knew Tucker, who was known from the neighborhood as “Butter.”

Grove changed his story later, saying that Tucker had a shotgun with him and was in the company of other men, although the video shows the shooter used a handgun and acted alone. Police were able to further implicate Tucker when they searched his Jeep and found gunshot residue in the passenger area.